Western Europe Small Passenger Car Registration Share Rises in 2009
One of the more widely anticipated effects of the car scrappage schemes popular in Europe as stimuli for the industry in 2009 was the increase in market share of A and B-segment small cars (exemplified by Ford’s Fiesta and Ka, Fiat’s 500 and Panda and Volkswagen’s Polo and Fabia). Data released by Deutsche Bank analysts shows that the predicted swing transpired to a significant degree – these small cars comprised 45 per cent of 2009’s registrations in the zone, compared with 39 per cent in 2008. In terms of passenger car tyres, it seems the trend must follow in Western Europe, though we predict the general growth in small car rim-sizes will mitigate this factor somewhat.